Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/73

Rh (then recently established) for the purpose of working up the natural history of southeastern Pennsylvania, and especially for the exploration of the bone-caves already mentioned. This was the first grant for original research made by the Smithsonian; no large amount, but wisely and well bestowed.

In 1850, Professor Henry, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, requested the regents to allow him to appoint an assistant secretary in the department of natural history, to take charge of the embryo museum, and to aid in the publication and other interests of the establishment. This being granted, he at once selected Professor Baird, who immediately accepted and entered upon his new duties. In doing so, he brought to the museum his own valuable collections, and from that time until his death devoted himself absolutely to performing and assisting scientific work on behalf of the American people.

The dream of Baird's life had been the creation of a museum, and to this end, as far as the policy of the Smithsonian Institution would permit, he bent his energies. The situation was a difficult and a delicate one, and we marvel that he was able to completely gain his ends without friction or controversy. Professor Henry, in organizing the Smithsonian, performed an exceedingly difficult task with skill and wisdom. There were all sorts of rival claimants for the disposal of the fund, some wishing to have literature provided for, others different branches of science, and many desiring that the money should be put into a large library. It was perfectly evident to Henry that, if he listened to all these demands, the Smithsonian fund would be frittered away and nothing of much consequence accomplished. He therefore laid stress on Smithson's terms of bequest, in which it was stated that the institution should be for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, and opposed the numerous elaborate plans presented to his notice. It was no part of Henry's intention, when he secured the employment of Baird, that the latter should build up a great National Museum; yet this was the very thing that Baird desired and hoped to do. Both men were right in the light of what they knew; the museum plan would probably have wrecked or crippled the Smithsonian in the hands of any one but a genius like Baird; but as it was, it gradually and naturally evolved, finding for itself public support, and in due course meeting the full approval of Henry himself. Those who were intimately acquainted with the two men speak only of their great attachment to one another, and the total lack of friction in the details of